Impact of COVID-19 on the duration of the peer review process of the <i>Journal of Animal Science and Technology</i>

The unprecedented global spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused rapid changes in existing social systems and industries across the globe. Even during the most unprecedented times in South Korea, schools have never been locked down. However, since March 1, 2020, South Korea has been on an academic shutdown, which emphasizes just how severe the impact of the virus was on a nationwide scale. The Great Depression, which started in 1929, was characterized by disruptions in production and supply caused by overproduction. In an interesting echo of those circumstances, one of the characteristics of the COVID-19 outbreak is that production and supply chain logistics have been halted due to the Great Lockdown. In Korea, the first case of COVID-19 was reported on January 21, 2020 [1]. Despite the efforts of the Korean government to control the spread of this virus, the number of infections started to rise rapidly in late February 2020. Since then, the Korean government has clearly notified residents of Korea to refrain from face-to-face contact and has prohibited group meetings. On March 22, 2020, a social distancing policy was implemented in order to resume dailylife activities. This essay aims to provide an analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the editing process of a scholarly journal, Journal of Animal Science and Technology (JAST, International Standard Serial Number 2055-0391), which is published by the Korean Society of Animal Sciences and Technology. The analysis presents a comparison of the total time (days) it took for a manuscript to receive a final decision in order to see the impact of COVID-19 on JAST’s editing processing time.